Capped off by the first women’s title fight in Zuffa, LLC history, July was a busy month for women’s MMA.

In our new column, “Women’s MMA Report,” MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recaps the past two weeks of female fights and previews upcoming matchups as we head into August.

The biggest story, of course, was the first-ever women’s championship in a Zuffa-run promotion, which took place this past Saturday at “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Henderson” at Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

More impressively, Tate won the belt by becoming the first woman to submit Coenen in 24 professional fights that span close to 11 years.

Although she was successful with takedowns, Tate struggled to mount any meaningful offense in rounds one and three, and she had to fight off multiple rear-naked choke attempts throughout the second round as Coenen maintained back control and tried to finish the fight. In the fourth round, however, Tate was able to take down Coenen again and secured an arm-triangle choke that forced the Dutch veteran to submit at the 3:03 mark.

An elated Tate was overcome with emotion.

Tate’s title victory appears to have divided MMA fans. While many were impressed by her ability to control Coenen on the ground and secure the submission, others felt that her striking is still a work in progress and took issue with a perceived lack of action after she was able to take down Coenen in the opening 15 minutes.

Either way, interest in a title rematch between Tate and former champion Sarah Kaufman – who defeated Tate under three-minute rounds in 2009 – appears high. That bout is expected to take place at an upcoming Strikeforce event, though a date has not been determined.

Scores were 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 for Davis, who kept Kedzie pressed against the cage throughout prolonged stretches of the fight and threatened with a rear-naked choke attempt on the ground in round two. Davis now has won three of four fights since losing a razor-thin and contentious decision to Shayna “The Queen of Spades” Baszler in the finals of last year’s Freestyle Cage Fighting women’s tournament.

The Victoria, British Columbia, Canada native employed crisp boxing and bloodied Carmouche’s nose in the second round while also scoring with knees in the clinch against the cage. Carmouche was unable to take the fight to the mat in round three and all three judges scored the fight 30-27 in Kaufman’s favor.

Kaufman now has won back-to-back fights since falling victim to a Coenen armbar in October, and she eagerly awaits a rematch with new champion Tate.

As former foes on the wrestling mat, McMann and Evinger renewed their rivalry in the cage on short notice; the bout was a late addition to the HDNet-televised event.

McMann took the fight to the ground in all three rounds and controlled from the top with short strikes. Evinger bloodied and possibly broke McMann’s nose in the final round and threatened with a pair of inverted triangle chokes, but McMann escaped and closed out the round strong with knees in the clinch.

All three judges scored the bout 30-27 for McMann, who next faces Raquel Pa’aluhi (3-1) at ProElite 1 on Aug. 27 in Honolulu.

Maxwell stops Samaro; Krumdiack defends FCF title

Strikeforce veteran Elaina “Beef” Maxwell (6-4) posted her fourth win in five fights with a third-round stoppage of Angela Samaro (3-2) at “King of the Cage: Shockwave” on July 23 in Oroville, Calif. The win was Maxwell’s second since losing a title fight to Shayna Baszler for The Cage Inc. this past November.

Maxwell, a San Shou kickboxer who has trained extensively under former Strikeforce champion Cung Le, was effective with strikes in the first two rounds and defended against Samaro’s submission attempts when the fight went to the mat. She dropped and nearly finished Samaro at the end of round two and then sent her to the canvas a second time early in round three. From there, Maxwell unleashed a barrage of elbows for the stoppage at the 1:00 mark.

The tap-out came at the 2:51 mark and gave Krumdiack her first win since a stoppage loss to Bellator veteran Rosi “The Surgeon” Sexton in November. Krumdiack weighed in at 120 pounds for the fight and has been considering a drop to 115 in the future.

On the same Pancrase card, Yukiko Seki (9-20) topped Kimie “Sakura” Okada (0-5-1) by unanimous decision with scores of 20-18, 20-18 and 20-19. Seki has now won four of her past five fights with the lone defeat coming in a controversial decision loss to Kikuyo Ishikawa in 2010.

Olympic judo bronze medalist “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey (2-0) faces Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio (4-1) at Strikeforce Challengers 18 on Aug. 12 in Las Vegas. Rousey has yet to have a fight last more than 57 seconds in five career amateur and pro MMA bouts. This event airs live on Showtime (U.S.) and Super Channel (Canada).

Holly “Hottie” Holm (1-0) meets Jan “Cuddles” Finney (8-9) at “Fresquez Productions: Clash In The Cage” on Sept. 9 in Albuquerque, N.M. Holm is widely regarded as one of the top pound-for-pound female boxers in the world and sports a 30-1-3 pro boxing record.

MMAjunkie.com publishes the Women’s MMA Report every other Monday. Its author, Robert Sargent, is a veteran MMA journalist who also runs MMARising.com. Feel free to email us at news [AT] mmajunkie.com with any questions, news tips or suggestions.